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BOAT LIFE

It’s time to spruce up your shirt collection. Last autumn, English brand Pink (owned by luxury giant LVMH) launched its bespoke service. In charge of quality is production director Richard Gibson, who earned his stripes cutting sails before moving to shirts. There is a small entry fee for the initial pattern creation (which includes taking at least 24 measurements) but, unlike with many other tailors, there’s no minimum order. It’s the perfect way to stock up on everyday basics to wear under a suit – but with more than 400 fabrics to choose from, why stop there? Sheer textiles, satin and oversized Oxford shirts are all big trends this season. thomaspink.com

Get in the Pink

The Pink Bespoke service

offers a choice of seven collars, three cuffs and

three pockets

Ginger Coffee Tables with églomisé tabletops by DKT Artworks, from £2,025 plus VAT, thealtcollective.co.uk

Design DNAThis month: Alt Collective Ginger Coffee Tables by DKT Artworks

Designed by Christopher Lees, the tables come with three or four legs, finished with brass feet and an antique brass table frame

The wood options for the legs are walnut and ash, but sizes and designs are fully bespoke. The tabletop finish comes in shades of blue with gold metallic colours, and silver with gold and copper accents

The glass tabletops are 6mm thick and finished by DKT Artworks with a verre églomisé paint application – a French technique which involves applying paint to the rear side of the glass

Each finish is handmade and the colours applied randomly, making every piece unique

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D R E A M T E A MOceanco’s on-spec bet on Øino, Disdale and a very special 90 metre pays off handsomely, says Caroline White

P h o t o g r a p h y G u i l l a u m e P l i s s o n ( e x t e r i o r s ) ;

m a r c h a n t a n d g o n t a . c o m ( i n t e r i o r s )

< C o v e r b o a t >

“YOU WANT SOMETHING SPECIFIC; YOU WANT SOMETHING SPECIAL.

IN OUR EXPERIENCE, AVERAGE DOESN’T DO IT ON THIS SIZE OF PROJECT”

The brief was for DreAMBoat to look “understated and timeless”. Designer Espen Øino remarked that at launch she looked “strong and proud with a lot of presence”

ne of the big hurdles we have to overcome as boats get bigger and more complex is build time,” says Espen Øino, designer of O c e a n c o ’ s n ew 9 0 - m e t r e

behemoth DreAMBoat. “Today a project of that scale is a four-year programme, then perhaps another year once the boat is delivered, revving it up and crewing it. So it quickly becomes five and that’s a very long time for many people.”

That’s why the Dutch custom yard built this vast project – to an advanced stage – on speculation. That’s right: a 90-metre boat, on spec, with no guarantee that someone would buy it. This is vertiginous decision-making. But by beginning DreAMBoat without an owner, Oceanco’s standard year of design plus three years of build was reduced to 18 months, from the owner signing the contract to delivery. “I think in the end this is one of the selling points, reducing lead time for a client,” says Roderick Gort, project director at Oceanco, with some understatement.

It is a testament to the health of the superyacht market, and of Oceanco in particular. In the Top 101, BOAT International’s annual list of the world’s biggest yachts, Oceanco ranks second, with more super-sized boats afloat than any builder save 145-year-old German yard Lürssen (not bad for a relative upstart, launched in 1987).

Let’s skip straight to the happy ending. It worked: a client bought DreAMBoat when fairing and outfitting were under way. Timing had definitely been a factor – he wanted it for the summer – and while he requested more than 100

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DreAMBoat has a 6m x 3.1m pool on the main aft deck and a further (large) spa pool on the sundeck. Øino’s superstructure is notable for its distinctive chamfers and knuckle lines

minor edits, the only major change was the addition of a VIP suite on the owner’s deck. So how did Oceanco achieve this result? When it comes to building smaller

superyachts on speculation, the received wisdom is to stay neutral to broaden the appeal to potential owners. On DreAMBoat, Oceanco threw this tenet out of the porthole. “We feel that if you do a stock project this size you can’t be mediocre,” says Gort. “You want something specific; you want something special. In our experience, average doesn’t do it on this size of project.” While the yard was careful to retain scope for an owner to customise the project when they came aboard, up in this realm you can’t hedge your bets – you need to commit to a design that will inspire and delight. You don’t need 10 clients who like it, you need one client who loves it.

Enter Terence Disdale, who penned DreAMBoat’s interior, and Espen Øino, who designed the exterior and GA. Disdale began his career in the late 1960s at Jon Bannenberg’s hothouse studio in London, one of a handful of talents who would go on to define modern superyacht design. Despite his own studio’s list of illustrious repeat clients and gargantuan projects (see 139.3-metre Al Salamah, 85.9-metre Ecstasea, 78-metre Montkaj, 81.8-metre Kibo (now Grace) and the record-breaking 162.5-metre Eclipse), Disdale’s mantra has remained “beach house not penthouse”.

Øino, meanwhile, is the man of the moment, with more exterior designs in the Top 101 than anyone else. The Norwegian-born, Monaco-based designer has penned some of the most dynamic yachts to hit the water in recent years. Take the genre-defining 126.2-metre explorer Octopus, the flowing decks of 133.9-metre Serene, 135.5-metre Crescent, with its “concertina” heli-hangar, military-style 85-metre BOLD or ultra-cool 76.2-metre expedition yacht Cloudbreak, with its ski room and vast garage of toys.

Oceanco, then, paired a bona fide legend with a more recent arrival in the pantheon – neither one “vanilla” in style but both designers that a client choosing a 90-metre yacht is statistically likely to engage (but who, strangely, have never worked together before). The project is based on a proven hull from Oceanco’s 700 series that started

DESIGNER Q&A: ESPEN ØINO

First experience on a boat? My grandfather built engines

for boats. I have memories of being on board with him

on the west coast of Norway

First boat you designed? I drew tonnes of boats as a kid –

I was always being yelled at by the teachers for it. I drew

ferries, I drew cruise ships. I put a little address with

a telephone number as if it was my office

Big break? Octopus was the real first big explorer yacht.

The GA was complicated because of the owner’s brief for

a lot of tenders and a big sub – not visible while cruising

– two helicopters as well. Then Skat – all these flat

intersecting surfaces, big windows. A lot of people were

critical about it. But a lot of people loved it

Favourite yacht design? Acajou, which means “mahogany”

in French; a collaboration between Jon Bannenberg and

André Mauric, who was the naval architect. Later she was

altered and then wrecked in a storm in Greece

Most admired yacht designer? Jon Bannenberg

Favourite furniture designer? Gio Ponti

Favourite building? The new opera house in Oslo. It’s built

in white marble with inclined surfaces so it looks like a

beach that runs into the water. It’s about l’ensemble, it’s

completely integrated – quite unusual

Ultimate design fantasy? To do my own boat. It would be

an energy efficient 15 metre, designed for an owner-

operator and resolutely modern but a bit “off-road” to do

the Norwegian coast in winter and summer

If you hadn’t been a yacht

designer? I might have worked

in shipping. Either that or a

mountain guide. I love the

mountains, I love skiing. But

shipping is super-interesting –

there are so many facets to it

I

Above: the main saloon with its custom bamboo carpet has distinct zones for different uses. Below: the upper saloon serves as a TV room and can host movie nights with its drop-down screen. Above: the more formal main deck dining area can seat 18 while the upper deck dining room (below) is more informal and can be opened up to the aft deck

DESIGNER Q&A:

TERENCE DISDALE

First experience on a boat?

I was about 12 years old. The

vessel was on my local stretch

of the Grand Union Canal [in

London] and was constructed to my design by myself and some

friends. We built it from two oil drums and some scaffold planks

Big break? It came in 1980 after about 12 years of designing

12- and 20-metre boats. I won a contract for a 65-metre yacht

to be built in Japan. My role was designing the superstructure

and interior layout, which was then decorated and detailed by

Chester Jones, who taught me that not everything should

match, or the result would be corporate-looking

Your inspiration? Mother nature and Asian culture fill my cup

Most admired yacht designer? Jon Bannenberg

Favourite furniture designer? Charles Eames

Favourite building? The Guggenheim Museum in New York

Fantasy project? A remote island dwelling or hotel

If you hadn’t been a yacht designer? I would have been a film

set designer or musician. I worked part-time in the film industry

and admired the skill of the production designers, who could

design a spaceship one day and then move to a project about

the Roman Empire. Other than that, I always had a passion for

music and would have followed in the footsteps of Sugarcane

Harris, who played amazing rock electric violinPOR

TRAI

T: R

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SEA

TON

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Above: the lavishly appointed wheelhouse. Below: the aft decks benefit from generous overhangs and offer a variety of spaces to be enjoyed by separate groups of guests

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“THE FOREDECK [IS] A SPACE THAT COULD AS EASILY

HOST A QUIET BREAKFAST AS AN AIRBUS H145 CHOPPER”

“WE ALWAYS CHOOSE MATERIALS THAT COME FROM MOTHER NATURE,

FROM PLACES SUCH AS BALI, THE PHILIPPINES, THE CARIBBEAN”

Clockwise from above: DreAMBoat has accommodation for 23 guests, including a VIP cabin within the owner’s suite; a Mexican artist was commissioned to create this statue for the boat, but there are also many stones and found items on board that are presented as artwork, in keeping with the natural decorative theme; the hair salon in the bridge deck spa has a Swarovski crystal ceiling

with Alfa Nero but has been developed and extended since. More recently it formed the basis of 90-metre DAR, although viewed alongside DreAMBoat, “it shows how different two such vessels can be above the waterline”, says Gort.

Øino’s brief from the yard was “timeless and contemporary” – “so the windows are all rectangular, it’s not a very busy design” – but he punctuated the look with some interesting details. To make the most of views from massive windows, Øino cut down the corresponding sections of bulwark – a move you have to pull off carefully to avoid a messy look. He has achieved this by replicating the trapezoidal shapes of the bulwark cut-downs in the freeing ports directly below them. There are also chamfers and knuckle lines that subdivide the massive surfaces to make the design appear “lighter”.

These details gave Oceanco’s workers a few headaches. “The longitudinal lines, sometimes 50 or 60 metres, have to end in the exact correct spot to make one point,” says Gort. “Doing this out of aluminium and then fairing it in such a way

that it looks like it was drawn with a pencil indicates the craftsmanship of the gentlemen who built it.”

But this is a yacht built from the inside out – “that’s how you design a boat”, says Øino. The GA was informed by his experience of how such yachts are used. Most waking hours are spent outside, so those spaces are maximised – and protected because “it’s very rare that there is absolutely no breeze”. Big tenders for a safe, dry ride are also, says Øino, “very important for a successful boat”.

There’s plenty of al fresco space on board, with sprawling aft decks on every level and a real treat up top. “I think one of the areas which stands out has been the sundeck,” says Gort. “It is almost 300 square metres of exterior/interior space with very flexible use.” There’s a dining/coffee area, a spa pool, bar with a television, a huge sunbathing area and the set-up for an outdoor cinema – the latter an owner request. Because of its lofty position, the area remains private, while sliding glass doors forward keep it protected.

Lower down, “we chose a significantly sized pool quite far out on the main deck, and that reduces the options that you have below”, says Gort. So rather than a beach club/spa aft on the lower deck, this reduced-height area has been assigned as a technical space. A spa can instead be found way up on the bridge deck. “We felt a spa should be a private area, somewhere where you should be able to lower your energy and relax,” says Gort. Tucked away behind the wheelhouse, it’s a space that can be used in seclusion even when the boat is in port and other boats’ beach clubs are closed up and out of use.

This arrangement also leaves space down on the lower deck for a vast tender garage with two 12-metre side-openings. It houses a 10.8-metre limo tender, customised to match the mothership, and a 10.5-metre sports tender – plus acres of space for the latest water toys.

But even areas that are relatively standard in layout are transformed by Disdale’s decorative treatments into warm, comfortable and highly individual spaces. “We always choose materials

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Disdale and created by hand. “In each boat it’s something that we do,” says Zulli. “In some other vessels we made them in metal or mother of pearl.” Here they’re a smooth, almost sea-worn alabaster veneer.

The separate, formal dining saloon seats up to 18 around an extendable table with a three-tone black lacquer finish, adjacent to a buffet counter with a petrified wood top. Forward of here are six warm-toned guest cabins, while on the upper deck, the owner’s area has a darker, sexier night-time vibe in high gloss, lacquered palm wood and parchment. This comprises a children’s cabin, a VIP cabin and the owner’s suite with his-and-hers bathrooms and dressing rooms, as well as 180-degree windows looking out over the foredeck – a space that could as easily host a quiet breakfast as an Airbus H145 chopper.

At the aft end of this deck is the family-focused upper saloon with coffee tables bordered in leather upholstery, so you can put your feet up. There’s a big television, and for movie time an even grander cinema screen that drops down in

that come from mother nature, from places such as Bali, the Philippines, the Caribbean,” says Daniela Zulli, director of Terence Disdale Design. “Like the coconut ceilings, like the cracked eggshell table-top and then the oak, which we use in various ways and various colours.” Zulli notes that almost all the finishes are custom-made to their designs, down to the table lamps. Even the rattans are bespoke – “we choose the weave and the colour” – and this level of control allows the designers to make incremental modulations in tone in different spaces. The bright, open main saloon is lined with custom cream bamboo carpets, which are “a lot more durable than silk and don’t have that warm feeling of a wool”, says Zulli. The television here recedes beneath a stone panel designed by

front of it. Aft, the informal dining space features a round table surrounded by floor-to-ceiling sliding glass windows – “to create an indoor/outdoor experience”, says Gort, an effect amplified by teak decking that spills from the aft deck into this space.

Up on the bridge deck, the highlight is that spa. The massage bath was an owner request – “custom-built, it runs a programme of 150 water and air nozzles”, says Gort. There’s a glass-doored steam room – “so you don’t feel claustrophobic”, says Zulli – a sauna, a massage room and a beauty salon with a Swarovski crystal ceiling.

The variety of textures and finishes throughout the boat (170 to be exact) is extraordinary. A modest lobby forward of the main saloon offers a feast for the senses, from the cushioned weave of leather under-foot, to a natural stone mosaic and the ribs of oak that clad the curving walls. “Each rib has been veneered separately, sprayed separately, and then applied,” says Gort. “Throughout the boat it’s literally kilometres of ribs, created piece by piece.” Likewise a cream

brush-stroke effect in the overhead was painstaking to create.

But not every element is so premeditated. While there are several works by established artists, there are also “pieces that are not necessarily artworks but we use them as artworks”, says Zulli. These include large crags of pyrite, tiger’s eye, ammonite, desert rose quartz and driftwood used in place of sculptures; ancient Chinese honeypots used like classical vases; there is even a cross-section of rusty steel pipe, furred up with sugar-white calcium, mounted on a base.

Perhaps the biggest achievement of the layout and decor is that, despite running through more than 1,000 square metres, as Gort puts it, “it doesn’t feel humongous. You can be on board with only a few guests and you still feel the vessel is being occupied.” That is, really, the dream boat. B

The spa is located on the bridge deck to leave space for a large tender garage on the lower

deck aft. The spa has a sauna (right) as well as a massage bath, steam room and beauty salon

LOA 90m

LWL 77.2m

Beam 14.2m

Draught (full load) 4.05m

Gross tonnage 2,946GT

Speed max/cruise 18.5/15 knots

Builder/year Oceanco/2019 Alblasserdam, the Netherlands t: +31 78 699 5399 e: info@oceanco.nl w: oceancoyacht.com

Engines 2 x MTU 20V 4000 M73L

Range at 14 knots 5,250nm

Generators 3 x MTU 500kW; 1 x MTU 227kW

Fuel capacity 256,000 litres

Freshwater capacity 115,000 litres

Tenders 1 x 10.9m Compass Limo; 1 x 10.6m Compass Open; 1 x 7.4m Ribeye Sports RIB; 1 x 4.8m Narwhal MOB

Owners/guests 22

Crew 27

Construction Steel hull; aluminium superstructure

Classification Lloyd’s ✠ 100 A1, SSC, Yacht Mono G6 ✠ LMC UMS SCM ECO-IHM

Naval architecture Oceanco

Exterior styling Espen Øino International

Interior design Terence Disdale Design

SPECS

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